


feel the tones that tremble

by kimirce



Series: crystals of the sea and stars [2]
Category: Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001), Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Childhood Friends, Gen, Kidfic, Lance is six years old in this, Prequel, prequel to Stars Above Atlantis, so is Thira
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-28
Updated: 2020-04-28
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:01:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,259
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23895727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kimirce/pseuds/kimirce
Summary: Lance’s first visit to Atlantis, and the beginning of his friendship with Princess Thira.
Relationships: Lance (Voltron) & Princess Thira (OC)
Series: crystals of the sea and stars [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1722238
Comments: 1
Kudos: 59





	feel the tones that tremble

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Atlantis: The Lost Alteans](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23739649) by [Cristynuca](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cristynuca/pseuds/Cristynuca). 



The first time Lance went to Atlantis, the crystal he’d always worn under his shirt thrummed against his chest, and warmth spread through him. The Heart of Atlantis shone ahead of them, and settled into his bones like it was saying hello. _Home,_ he thought.

It certainly wasn’t Veradero, where his house was, and his school, and his friends and his family, but somehow this place felt like home too.

Rachel was twitching with excitement next to him, and Lance elbowed her in the ribs. She smacked his arm and glared at him as the flier came to a stop, and their Papá came to lift them out.

“None of that, kiddos,” he said. “Welcome to Atlantis!”

Lance stared around in awe. The city rose up around them, all greenery and carved plazas and painted stone. Flying mechanical fish and rays shot through the air, and voices were raised in laughter and shouting everywhere. He had never in his life seen anything like it.

Grown-ups gathered around them, greeting his Papá and exclaiming in loud voices. Lance gave them all wide-eyed smiles, and received smiles in return. Rachel elbowed him in the side. He pouted and looked at her, but she was smiling. “Payback, hermanito,” she muttered. Her face brightened, looking at something behind him, and then she took off running.

“What - ” Lance turned to see where she was going, and immediately darted off after her, and their Papá followed them, laughing at their excitement. Shrieks of “Amatim!” and “Abuelo!” pierced the air as his children ran to greet their grandparents.

Lance and Rachel were caught up in bear hugs as their grandparents admired them. “Look how big you’ve grown, Lancito – you’re going to be tall, just like your Papá,” said Lance’s abuelo, turning his smiling gaze to his son as he drew closer.

“No offense, Papá, but I’ll always be glad I got Mat’s height.” Lance’s Papá stood nearly a head taller than his abuelo.

“What about me?” Rachel whined playfully. “I wanna be tall too!” Their abuelo laughed and placed a gentle hand in her hair.

“No worries, mija, it looks like you’ll be taking after your amat in that respect too.” He turned a loving gaze on his wife. “Strong genes, you know.”

Manakh kissed him on the cheek and then held out her arms to her grandchildren. Lance and Rachel leapt into her embrace, and giggled as she hefted them both up, one in each arm. “Come, mikoukeh, time to get you all ready for the festival!” She walked off, holding Lance and Rachel with ease as they chattered brightly in her ears.

The father and son left behind watched them leave fondly. After a moment, Teo turned to his father. “I had better find Proskim before the festivities begin,” he admitted ruefully.

He received a raised eyebrow in response. “Go on then. We wouldn’t want a repeat of last time.”

Teo rolled his eyes and kissed his father on the cheek, then raised a hand and whistled loudly. A passing flier slowed above their heads. “Mind giving me a lift?” Teo called. A hand reached down, and a moment later Teo had levered himself up and they were speeding away.

*

Lance squirmed in his seat. His outfit was weird. He felt like he was wearing a dress or something.

“Hold still, kouken,” his grandmother said firmly, placing a hand on his shoulder as she fastened something behind him. Lance shut his eyes and tried to hold still – tried to ignore Rachel, spinning in the corner and admiring herself in the mirror, already all done up.

Amatim gripped his chin, and Lance opened his eyes to her smiling warmly down at him. “There we go, kouken,” she said. “All done.”

Lance gasped dramatically and ran over to the mirror, encroaching on Rachel’s space in an attempt to get a look at himself.

“Hey!” Rachel refused to move. “I was here first!”

Lance was drawing breath to argue with her when their grandmother interceded. “Rachel,” she said calmly, “Lance gets a turn now.”

Rachel pouted, but didn’t protest. Lance stuck out his tongue, and she responded in kind.

“Peludeh,” came a warning voice from behind them, and the children stiffened.

“Sorry, Amatim!” They chorused.

Lance focused on the mirror. He looked…different. The outfit did look kind of like a dress, but not quite. His crystal, for once, was visible, hanging outside his clothes.

The boy in the mirror didn’t really look like the kid from Cuba. He looked like the people wandering around this fantastical city. He looked Atlantean. Lance decided he liked it.

Rachel was already bugging their amat, dancing around with nervous energy. “Can we go play now, please, please, please? I wanna see the flying fish!”

Oh, Lance had to get in on that.

“Well, I want to _fly_ the flying fish!” He announced.

Rachel glared at him. “Not before I do! I’m older!”

“By a year and a half!”

“Two years, dummy!”

 _“Rachel,”_ Amatim said, steely. Rachel froze. “No name-calling!”

Rachel looked down. “Sorry, Amatim,” she mumbled.

“And?”

Rachel looked mutinous for a moment, but complied. “Sorry, Lance.”

“Good. Now, I’m afraid neither of you can fly a flier yet, but we can definitely go see them. Betkem!”

Manakh herded her excitable grandchildren out of the house, smiling all the while.

*

Lance had a bunch of cousins he’d never met! Okay, most of them were older, or girls, and they kept ruffling his hair, but he decided he liked them anyway. Rachel was certainly getting along well with them.

Their Papá and abuelo had found them just as the party got started, and it was amazing. There were all kinds of interesting food, and everyone was dancing! A few nice grown-ups had seen him trying to follow along and taught him the steps, and then he was dancing with them!

Queen Kida gave a speech, but Lance didn’t understand most of it. That was fine, though, because the feathers on her head were cool and everyone else seemed to like what she was saying.

Everything just felt bright and happy, but he was getting kind of tired, and his feet hurt, so he stopped dancing. He wasn’t quite sure where his family was, but that was alright. There wasn’t any danger in Atlantis. They’d told him not to wander too far, but as long as he stayed where adults were nearby, it was fine.

One moment, he was standing, the next, he was hitting the ground with a thump. “Ah! Sorry! Sorry!”

The voice came from the girl who had just crashed into him, and was currently getting to her feet. She held out a hand to pull him up. He took it. “Are you okay?” She asked. She was about his age, and had the white hair that nearly everyone here seemed to have.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” she said. “I’m Thira.”

“Lance. Where are you going?”

Thira suddenly looked shifty. “It’s a secret,” she said. “But I’ll tell you if you promise not to tell!”

Lance nodded seriously. “Pinky swear,” he said, offering her his pinky. They locked pinkies, and she nodded, satisfied.

“I’m sneaking away to play with one of the fliers while all the grown-ups are too busy to stop me. Wanna come?”

Lance didn’t have to think twice. “Yes!”

Thira giggled. “Then come on!” She grabbed his hand and started running again, and he followed, feet thumping on the ground.

Thira knew where she was going much better than he did. She led them through the city without hesitation, until they arrived right at a cliff.

“Whoa,” Lance breathed. “This is so cool!”

There were four fliers parked nearby, shaped like fish and stingrays. They were still and unlit, and Lance grabbed the crystal around his neck and lifted it off, knowing they needed it to turn one on, although he didn’t know exactly how.

“I know!” Thira giggled. “Nobody will be able to see us out here.” She pulled off her own crystal. “Come on!”

They clambered onto the nearest flier, which was shark-like in design – much to Lance’s delight. He ended up sitting behind Thira, peering over her shoulder as she leaned over the activation pad.

“Have you ever flown before?” Lance asked her.

“No,” Thira said matter-of-factly, “But my brother can do it, so it can’t be that hard.”

“I have two older brothers,” Lance said. “And two older sisters.”

Thira twisted to blink at him. “Really? I only have one. He’s older. And he’s boring. He never wants to do anything!”

“My sister Rachel said she should get to fly one of these before me because I’m younger, but I don’t think that’s fair. I’ve wanted to fly forever! She just said it because I did,” Lance pouted.

“Well, I’m flying first,” Thira said, “Because this was my idea. But you can go next! And then we’ll go find your sister and she can fly too, but only after you.”

Lance’s smile was like the sun. “Let’s do it!”

They turned their attention back to the flier. “…do you know how to turn it on?” Lance asked Thira. Thira bit her lip.

“Well, I know the crystal goes in here,” she said, inserting her crystal into a slot at the top of the pad. They waited for a moment, but nothing happened.

Lance leaned over to see, bracing his hand on the activation pad. He looked at Thira. “I guess we have to do something else, too,” he said.

Thira hummed, fiddling with the crystal. It shifted. Her face lit up. “It turns! I’m gonna turn it on. Hold on!”

Lance wrapped an arm around Thira’s waist and clung with his legs, so he could keep them both from falling.

Thira turned the crystal, and – the pad lit up beneath Lance’s fingers, humming as it turned on. Thira whooped. The light spread to the rest of flier, and it gently rose beneath them.

“Yes!” Lance shouted.

Thira reached forward for the handles, but she was too short to hold on to both at the same time. She scooted farther forward to try and grab them, and the flier wobbled. Lance pulled her back.

“What if we each hold on to one?” He suggested.

Thira looked back at him, then back at the handlebars. “Alright,” she agreed. “We’ll fly together.”

Thira scooted as far forward as she could and leaned left, taking hold of the left handlebar. Lance leaned right, reaching past her to hold the other one.

Lance pushed, and the flier moved forward a bit, twisting to the left. “Hey!” Thira said. “We have to do it together. On three?”

Lance nodded at her. They counted together. “Din, dut, _sey!”_

They both pushed, and the speeder flew forward smoothly, over the edge of the cliff.

“Yes!” Thira screamed. “Yes, yes, yes! We did it!”

Lance looked down, and saw water far below. “This is amazing!”

The air was filled with their laughter and giddy whoops.

“Let’s turn!” Thira said.

“Okay!” agreed Lance. “Which way?”

“That way,” Thira said, jerking her head back towards the festival. “We have to go show everyone! That will show the grown-ups we’re not too little to fly!” She thought for a moment. “Especially my brother,” she added.

Lance warmed to the idea. “Rachel will be so jealous,” he said. “Let’s go!”

Thira pulled, and Lance pushed – and the flier turned sharply, nearly unseating Lance. “Whoa!” He yelped, grabbing Thira.

“Ah!” she cried out. They managed to steady themselves, but only barely.

Thira smiled at Lance. “We’ve got this.”

“Yeah,” he nodded.

They pushed together again, and soared off in the direction of the festival, picking up speed. It was official: Lance loved flying.

“One day, I’m going to fly to space,” he told Thira.

“Really?” she asked. “Then I’m going with you! We’ll be the best astronauts in the world!”

Lance grinned so hard his cheeks hurt. He lifted his free hand. “Promise?”

Thira locked the pinky finger of her free hand around his own. “Promise,” she said.

She looked back in front of them. “Look! There’s everyone else!”

Smiling brightly, they leaned forward together.

*

Teo lifted Rachel up, bracing her on his hip. She was getting tired. It would probably be time to put her and Lance to bed soon.

He looked over at the knot of dancing circles. Lance had been over there not too long ago, but he didn’t see him now…

He caught his mother’s shoulder. “Matim,” he said. “Have you seen Lance?” He wasn’t really worried. He knew any of the adults here could be trusted to look after a kid, and Lance had promised to stay nearby.

Manakh furrowed her brow. “He was dancing, wasn’t he?” She brushed a hand over Rachel’s hair. “I can go find him if you want to put her to bed,” she offered.

“No,” Teo declined, “I’ll take them both at once. Let’s just find him.”

Teo was just turning to go look in the crowd when a shout caught his attention.

“Papá!” it was Lance’s voice – he sounded excited. “Look!”

It took Teo a moment to figure out where the sound was coming from – he looked up, and his heart leapt into his throat.

Lance was on top of a flier and _there was no adult_. “Lance!” he shouted, putting Rachel down. Teo was so frightened that he missed the sight of the other child on the flier entirely, until he heard someone else shouting “ _Thira!”_

The flier swooped gently around. The children were laughing. “Look, Papá! I’m flying, we’re flying!” screamed Lance.

Teo darted for a flier. He didn’t want to startle them and make them fall by shouting at them, so the best course of action was probably to get up there with them.

Someone else beat him to that very same idea. Another flier approached the children. Teo relaxed infinitesimally when he saw that it was Proskim. He activated the nearest flier, and rose up to join them.

“Thira!” Proskim was calling. “Just stay where you are, and I’ll come get you. Stay still, neh?”

The little girl’s expression dimmed. “But I can fly,” she said. “Why do you want to make me stop?”

“It’s not safe, Thira,” Proskim told her. “Just let me get you before you and your friend get hurt.”

Thira frowned more deeply, and Teo felt a sense of foreboding.

“Lance,” he called out, and Lance’s head turned toward him.

“You said I was too little to fly, but I can!” Thira shouted at Proskim. “It’s not fair!”

Proskim hovered closer, reaching for the kids. “We can talk about it later, Thira - ”

Thira jerked away from his hands, taking Lance with her. Teo’s eyes widened. The children overbalanced, and Thira braced herself against the ignition pad – and the flier accelerated steeply, shooting off with the children on board.

 _“Lance!”_ Teo screamed, immediately accelerating after them. They were both screaming, clinging to the flier and each other. They flew out over the water. Lance slipped, and the flier veered sharply, dumping both children off.

Teo took his flier into a dive, vaguely aware of Proskim doing the same next to him. The children fell into the water. Teo pulled his flier up just short of the surface and dove in after them.

They weren’t far below water. Lance was holding Thira’s hand as they both kicked, swimming up. Teo took a moment to be grateful that even at six years old, both Lance and Thira knew how to swim.

He reached them and snatched them up, one in each arm, and broke the surface seconds later. Proskim was in the water too, so Teo handed Thira off to him, then clutched Lance to his chest.

Lance blinked blue eyes up at him, sputtering a little. Then he smiled. “That was awesome! Let’s do it again!”

“Yes!” Thira cheered from Proskim’s grip.

Teo stared incredulously at the little boy in his arms as his heart finally began to slow down from the fear of the past few minutes. He looked up to meet Proskim’s gaze and saw the same sentiment reflected there.

He resisted the urge to tell Lance ‘You are never doing this again,’ and instead said, “Let’s get you both home.”

The flier that had dumped the kids had gone on to crash into the cliffside, so Teo and Proskim left it behind, and took the kids home.

*

The next morning, Lance got the scolding of his life. His papá, his amat, and his abuelo all stood over him, exasperated and terrified in turns.

Finally, Diego sighed, and knelt down. “You could have died, mijo,” he told his grandson. “Do you understand why we’re upset? You and Thira seriously endangered yourselves.”

Lance scuffed the floor. “I guess,” he muttered. He looked up. “But we were fine until that guy tried to stop us!”

“And then you weren’t,” Teo pointed out.

Lance huffed. “We were still fine,” he said. “We’re not _babies,_ we could swim.”

Manakh was still standing, staring down at her grandson sternly. “You knew you could swim,” she told him. “What if Thira hadn’t been able to? What if _Thira_ had died?”

Lance’s eyes widened. He looked down. “I’m sorry,” he said.

Teo sighed heavily. “It’s alright now, mijo,” he said. “But I’m going to have to talk with your mamá about you losing some privileges when we get home. You promised that you would stay where there are people around, and you broke that promise. Do you understand?”

Head hung low, Lance answered. “Yes, papá.”

He looked back up. “Can I still see Thira again?” His eyes were wide and hopeful.

Teo sighed. “Yes, you can see Thira again.”

The adults exchanged glances, remembering the message they had received from Proskim earlier that morning.

“In fact,” Teo continued, “we can go see her now.”

Lance brightened. “Really?”

“Sí,” Teo answered with a smile, and Lance promptly hugged him, then grabbed his hand to drag him towards the door.

*

When they arrived at the palace, the first person Lance saw waiting for him was Queen Kida. He hid behind his father’s legs. “Am I in trouble with the Queen?” he whispered.

Queen Kida laughed. “No, you are not, pedinen. Thira?”

Thira walked through a door and stepped up to Lance. “I’m sorry, Lance. I didn’t mean to put you in danger or get us in trouble.” Thira’s lip trembled.

Lance shook his head. “Don’t be sorry. We got in trouble together. And we got through it together. Remember?” He held out his pinky.

Thira stared at his hand, and then her face erupted in a smile. She locked her pinky with his, then threw her arms around his neck. Lance hugged her back.

The adults in the room watched them. They were adorable, but hopefully, in the future, they would refrain from causing quite so much trouble.

Lance pulled back to whisper in Thira’s ear. “Do you know why Queen Kida wanted to see us?”

Thira grinned mischievously, and turned to the Queen. Lance’s eyes widened. “Matim!” Thira called, “Lance is wondering why you wanted to see us.”

Lance spluttered. “Mat – she’s your _mat?_ You’re a _princess?”_

Thira nodded. “Yep!”

Lance flailed.

Teo smiled at his son’s confusion, and Queen Kida’s expression of amusement.

He had a feeling that Lance and Thira were going to be a handful, but it looked like they would at least have each other along the way, and that was something he could only be grateful for.

**Author's Note:**

> (I didn't manage to fit this explicitly in the story, so if it wasn't clear: Proskim is Thira's older brother.)
> 
> My family is multicultural and multilingual, so I am definitely pulling from those experiences when I’m writing about Lance’s family, since in this story there’s a mixed background thing going on. I use three different languages when referring to my different grandparents, and none of them are English. The same sort of thing is happening with Lance’s grandparents. It’s also pretty common in my family to switch languages specifically for endearments or admonishments when talking to children, so that’s kind of getting incorporated here too.
> 
> However, I do not speak Spanish, and I am not Latinx, so suggestions and corrections regarding how I portray Lance and his family are very welcome!
> 
> Quick Glossary of Atlantean words:
> 
> amat, Amatim - grandmother.
> 
> mikoukeh - my darlings, my dears.
> 
> kouken - darling.
> 
> peludeh - children.
> 
> betkem - let's go.
> 
> neh - yes or okay.
> 
> pedinen - little one.
> 
> din, dut, sey - one, two, three.
> 
> mat, Matim - mother.
> 
> If you're curious about where I'm getting these words from, you can check out [this tumblr post](https://kimirce.tumblr.com/post/620023133342154752/atlantean-language-masterpost) for info on my Atlantean etymology and word construction! You can also hit me up any time at [kimirce](https://kimirce.tumblr.com/) on tumblr if you have any questions or comments!
> 
> This work is unbeta'd, and all mistakes are my own.


End file.
